India's National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the governing body for all tiger reserves in the country, has asked chief wildlife wardens of all states and field directors of tiger reserves to disallow filming permission to BBC in any of the protected areas for a period of 5 years.
As earlier reported by Sputnik, the NTCA had issued a notice to Rowlatt and the BBC asking for explanations as to why their licenses should not be cancelled for airing the program without submitting it to the Ministries of Environment and External Affairs for the mandatory preview.
Titled ‘One World: Killing for Conservation', the documentary by BBC's South Asia correspondent Justin Rowlatt delved into Kaziranga National Park's rhino conservation methods, alleging that the authorities had given forest guards powers to shoot anyone whom they suspected of being a threat to rhinos.
"They [BBC] have misrepresented facts and selectively over-dramatized interviews and old footage. They had a different agenda fueled by certain foreign NGOs and local elements opposed to conservation," the Environment Ministry had said earlier, recommending the NTCA proposed ban on the Television channel.
The Kaziranga National Park in northeast India hosts two thirds or roughly 2,400 of the world's great one-horn rhinoceroses, and is a World Heritage Site.
